


Community Servitude

by akisazame



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-01-16
Updated: 2009-01-16
Packaged: 2018-02-24 12:59:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2582258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akisazame/pseuds/akisazame
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yosuke comes to the day care to try and help Souji with the kidlets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Community Servitude

"Aw, dude, seriously? This is so not cool." Yosuke looked at the day care assistant's apron with a look of disgust.

Souji laughed in spite of himself. "Like what you wear at Junes is much better."

Yosuke shot his best friend an angry look. "Yeah, well, that's different."

Instead of shooting back a retort, Souji just rolled his eyes and sighed. There really wasn't much use in arguing with Yosuke; he was a good guy, but stubborn as hell. Still, that was one of the many things that Souji liked about him. "Can you just put your fashion sense aside so we can go?"

Grumbling the whole time, Yosuke tied on the apron and headed for the door that led to the play yard. "I don't know why I said I'd come, anyway. I told you, I'm awful with kids."

"It's to make up for that week you made me work at Junes over summer vacation," Souji shot back, frowning at the memory. It had been overpoweringly hot, so much so that even Teddie had been exhausted by the end of it. If there was one thing they'd learned about Teddie, it was that the bear was extremely difficult to exhaust. Yosuke had promised over and over again that he'd make it up to Souji somehow, and the silver-haired boy had finally decided that making his friend tag along on his own part time job was a fitting punishment.

He did a good job of masking it, but Souji could still see the remnants of a look of abject terror in Yosuke's eyes when all the small children starting running towards them. "Mister Souji, Mister Souji!" one of the girls screamed. "Is this your friend, Mister Souji?"

There wasn't even time for a proper introduction before two boys ran up to Yosuke, each one latching on to one of the high schooler's arms. The horrified look was slowly becoming more prominent on his face as he looked down at his miniature would-be kidnappers.

"I have dibs!" one boy yelled, sticking his tongue out at the other. "We need one more person for four square!"

The other boy yanked hard on Yosuke's arm, nearly causing him to lose his balance. "We're playing Featherman R and someone has to be the big bad monster!"

Eventually it was Souji who broke it up, though Yosuke couldn't be entirely grateful. He'd been certain that Souji would be the bigger person and take the fall, but that would have been expecting too much. Clearly this entire day had been designed to make Yosuke suffer. He could practically feel Souji's bemused stare as the children dragged him away.

Halfheartedly, he raised his arms over his head and twisted his face into something he thought was menacing. "Raaawr," he managed to choke out, in a voice only a step above monotone. He couldn't help glancing at Souji out of the corner of his eye; sure enough, his friend was happily laughing as he played four square with the other children. _How could you abandon me like this, partner?_

The children, of course, weren't buying it. "C'mon, Mister Souji's Friend, you gotta be more scary than that!"

So that was it. He'd been demoted to Mister Souji's Friend. He'd had to do a ton of humiliating things at Junes, but this really took the cake. Well, when in Rome, right? "Raaaaawr!" he yelled, making his face even more frightening and lunging towards one of the kids. She laughed and darted away. "I'm gonna get you! Not even Featherman R can stop me!"

"Not so fast!" exclaimed the boy who'd roped him into this in the first place, jumping in front of him and holding up his finger in a typical superhero pose. A couple more kids followed suit, standing in formation behind the first, assuming the same pose. "We, the Featherman Rangers, will defeat you!"

Before Yosuke knew what was happening, all of the children had leapt on top of him, pushing him to the ground and attacking him, little hands and feet punching and kicking, but only hard enough to sting a little. He probably could have struggled, but what was the point? Souji was probably laughing his ass off right now. Playing along, he made some gurgling noises, then slumped over "dead."

He had his eyes closed, but he could feel the kids standing over him. One of them, the leader he assumed, stomped his foot down on Yosuke's stomach, which hurt a lot more than a four-year-old had any right to hurt a teenager. "Victory for Featherman R!" All the other kids cheered, and then ran off, leaving Yosuke lying there in the dirt. Completely disheartened, he just stayed there for a few long minutes, motionless, mourning his terrible fate.

After a while, a door opened, and the shouts of the children died down as they all clambered inside the building to wait for their parents to pick them up. Yosuke became aware of a shadow, larger than a child's, hanging over him. "Did they hurt you?"

Yosuke opened his eyes slightly to see Souji standing over him, holding out a hand to help him to his feet. As if he needed to be any more embarrassed. But he took the hand anyway. "Kids hurt when they stand on you."

He could tell that Souji was choking back a laugh, and it made him angry. "Oh, come on, you know you thought it was funny. Get what you wanted? Yosuke's great humilation at the hands of some day care kids. Hope you're happy." Back on his feet, he dropped Souji's hand and turned away, arms crossed over his chest, his usual pouting gesture.

"I don't know, it looked like you were having fun," Souji ventured, allowing himself a smile now that his friend was no longer looking at him. "Until they started beating you up, that is."

"They didn't beat me up!" Yosuke spluttered, turning back around to stare Souji in the face. "I let them win. _Obviously._ "

"Obviously," Souji echoed, taking off his apron. "So, want to come back again on Saturday?"

Yosuke, who'd been taking off his own apron, looked at Souji incredulously. "Oh _hell_ no!" He punctuated his statement by throwing the apron on the ground and stomping away towards the bus stop. All Souji could do was pick the apron back up and laugh.


End file.
